Venezuelans go to polls over economy

AP, CARACAS

Mon, Dec 09, 2013 - Page 7

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro faces his first electoral test since being elected nearly eight months ago, as Venezuelans went to the polls yesterday to judge his government’s response to their nation’s mounting economic troubles.

The vote for mayors and city councils in this deeply polarized country was bound to be competitive after Maduro defeated opposition leader Henrique Capriles by a razor-thin margin in the election held in April to choose former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s successor following his death from cancer.

Capriles has refused to recognize the results, alleging fraud.

Since then, Venezuela’s economic troubles have deepened, with inflation touching a two-decade high of 54 percent and shortages of everything from toilet paper to milk spreading while the black market value of the currency plunges.

Not surprisingly, disapproval of Maduro’s rule had been rising, especially within the coalition of ideological leftists and members of the military that he inherited from Chavez.

However, the 51-year-old former bus driver has managed to regain momentum by going after groups and businesses he accuses of waging an “economic war” against his socialist government. Among the most popular measures: the seizure of dozens of retailers and the slashing of prices on plasma TVs, fridges and other appliances.

Unlike the opposition, which claims it is the target of a campaign by Maduro to intimidate media that provide airtime to its events, pro-government candidates have also been helped by abundant coverage of almost-daily appearances by the president.

Maduro also decreed yesterday a national holiday of “loyalty and love” for Chavez, whose legacy remains strong among poor Venezuelans.

The opposition is seeking to pick up votes in major cities — it currently holds just three of the top 10 most-populated districts, including the capital — Caracas — and score a symbolic victory by taking the majority of the national total.

In the last municipal elections in 2008, it won 46 municipalities, with another 10 going to dissident factions of Chavismo.

Pro-government candidates govern in the remaining of the 337 districts that were up for grabs yesterday, many of them rural areas, and are hoping to thwart the opposition’s gains by taking control of Maracaibo, the country’s second-biggest city.